After the release of our brand new website on the first of October 2008, we’ve been tracking our performance and with baited breath to see whether we were going to be the internet success story of the ice maker world!

Usually most ice maker and ice machine websites are very technical and boring. We tried to “spice up the ice” with, first and foremost this blog, and a different look and feel of the website that doesn’t just revolve around rectangular steel boxes we call the Scotsman ice maker.

We wanted the ice systems blog to be more than just a write up on new ice machines and the ice makers spare parts. We try every week to bring a new and interesting topic to the world of ice makers, and wee hope we are achieving this.

At the beginning of the year we sat down as a marketing team and decided on some goals for our innovative ice maker website. We use Hubspot’s Website Grader to evaluate our website’s performance, we know that it is naive to believe that an SEO company would give you a higher score unless you are using their website management tools, but we find their suggestions to be extremely useful and the results speak for themselves!

At the end of last year we sat with a 50/100 website grade, as you can imagine this was nothing to rant and rave about, especially when the American Scotsman Ice Maker web page was graded as a 92! Our goal by July 2009 was to have a website grade of 75/100. We thought this was an attainable target, it would take hard work, lots of keyword manipulation (ice – ha ha ha sorry I could not resist) and networking! But we would make the big 75 by July, or else we couldn’t call ourselves partners of Scotsman innovation!

Well we at Ice Systems happy to report that we have attained our 75, in fact we’ve surpassed it! We’re now sitting firmly at an 83/100!

We are extremely happy with our performance thus far and with your help we can only make ice systems’ website even better! Thank you for RSS feeding us, Delicious-ing our web page!, joining our facebook group and following our Twitter page!

Without your help and loyalty to Scotsman and Ice Systems our website would never have done so well!

- Matthew John

Often times you will find that ice cubes appear dull or cloudy. The reason is simply in the process of making the ice cubes. If the water is frozen too fast then cloudy ice cubes form. Another reason is that when the water is cooled off up to the freezing point, the ice cubes will start to form. As the ice forms the gases are dissolved and escape in the form of microscopic bubbles. The bubbles are trapped inside the ice cubes and the result is dullness. To prevent this from occurring the freezing process should be just right. Top quality ice machines make use of a process where water flow is used to ensure cooling at the bottom allowing for gas bubbles to be washed away from the top of the ice as the ice cubes form. Invest in quality machines to prevent cloudy ice cubes. Contact us to discuss your particular requirements.

If you are interested in starting a business of ice selling you will require a commercial ice machine since the home models will not be able to produce large quantities sufficient for ice selling. The gourmet cube machines will also not suffice. As such consider one of the Scotsman ice cube maker machines which can produce 300 kg and more a day. The Scotsman cube maker models prevent clumping of cubes which is important in the ice selling business. The units also include auto alerting and are low on maintenance. With various user friendly features embedded in the design you will be amazed how easy it is to operate, clean, and maintain the machines. View our page on ice selling for more information regarding suitable models and the income potential associated with each.

Various types of ice are used in restaurants. As such you may need more than one ice machine. You may for instance, have a large salad, dessert or fish display area and require ice that will ensure attractive displays and ensure that the produce will stay cool for longer. In this case you will need a flake ice machine that can produce ice in its natural form. Since the ice has a granular structure it can easily be spread out on sloping surfaces. Super dice and gourmet cubes are suitable for beverages. In this case you will need to consider how many patrons visit the restaurant. If you have many patrons on a given day then the super dice cubes with their six sided shapes will be perfect as the machine will produce enough to ensure that you don’t run out of ice. The gourmet type is well suited for hotels and cuisine style environments.

Restaurant patrons often complain about the taste of drinks and water. They cannot quite place their finger on the taste or problem, but are sure the drink doesn’t taste the way it should. The reason – the absence of or clogged ice maker filters. Whenever you purchase ice machines also invest in ice maker filters. The ice maker filters have the function of removing minerals, scale, bacteria and various other types of contaminates from the water from which the ice will be produced. The filter plays an essential role in keeping the machine in good condition and ensuring ice free from impurities and harmful contaminates. It should be noted that the number of ice maker filters required differ according to the machine size and type. Cube icemakers can require as many as three filters while the flake types will require two where some will work with only one. As a rule of thumb ice cube machines producing more than 500 kg of ice will need three ice maker filters.